Nasty November

November was a long month. Since Aaron has been gone I have been keeping myself very busy. I make sure I get dressed and do my hair. I clean and do projects. I try to get out of the house everyday. But once November hit I slowed down. I needed to. After three months of projects, working out, and doing whatever else I could think of I needed a breather. Anyway once I slowed down some of the feelings of missing Aaron bubbled up, which was hard. I was feeling worn out. Aaron must have been feeling the same way though because that's when he called with his Arkansas trip idea. A much needed vacation. So with that to look forward to my spirits lifted considerably. I decided I needed to read a good book so I borrowed my sister's copy of the Hunger Games and yeah its good. I spent the next week shut up in my house with Daisy reading. Because if your like me when you start a good book not much really exists. But as bad luck would have it during this time Aaron's car was stolen. It is a horrible feeling to walk out to your driveway and your car is not there. The night I think it was stolen I heard a car alarm go off for a few seconds and my first thought was some one is steeling Aaron's car. This was a three in the morning. The sad thing was that the car had only been in the driveway for a week. My brother in law had been driving it and had just returned it. When he dropped it off, I had a feeling it wouldn't be there long. So that is probably why I wasn't so surprised to see it gone. Of course I teared up, but figured that wouldn't make the car come back. So after calling my brother in law, I called the police. Our poor car is probably stripped now or in Mexico : ) So that was the beginning of November. It was long and our car was stolen, not great. November did end on a high note though with our trip and Daisy's birthday. Now it is only a few weeks till Aaron is home for good. We are almost done!

One year Old!

Well we made it through our first year. Daisy turned one on Nov. 28th. I am so glad that Aaron got to see her dig into her cake and we were able to celebrate as a family. We may have done it two days early but it counts. I think every mother feels that time goes to fast sometimes. I am no exception. I love my little girl. I love to watch her grow, laugh and play. She has made me a better person. I am so thankful that she was sent to our family and that we get to keep her forever. Even on the hard days I can't imagine my life without her, especially these past few months. She has really been my little buddy while Aaron has been away. Anyway, here are her one year stats.

She is 26.5" inches tall and in the 25 percentile.

She weighs 18lbs. 5 oz. and is in the 10 percentile.

She is so tiny! I love it!

She eats really well and pretty much whatever I place in front of her. Hopefully that lasts forever : )

When she is done with her food she throws it on the floor.

She can say Mama and I am sure she knows its me.

She loves books and will look at them all day.

She's fast. She is my little army crawler and can move. However, this very morning she started to crawl normally. Maybe she will be walking soon?

She can walk when I hold her hands, but she prefers to run. She will kick her toes and legs up too like a rockets dancer.

She pulls her hair and scratches herself. Yesterday at her doctors visit I asked if the scratching was anything I needed to be worried about and he said she has dry skin. I felt kind of bad, guess that means we need to lather her up more.

She loves to play on the couch and just recently had her first big fall off of it. She was fine, but a little rattled.

She is soooo wiggly. I never get to hold a still child. Daisy wants to see everything and be in the middle of it. So she is a girl on the go.

She now drinks whole milk... YAY no more formula.

She likes her grandpa Steve, in a crowded room she will find him over anybody else.

She likes to chew on her blanket.

She is a good sleeper.

Her hair is long enough for braids, but she doesn't sit still long enough to put them in.

 We love our girl!

More Arkansas....

Here are more pictures! Just for fun.

Please ignore my crazy eyes. This was just after Aaron arrived, our first picture in months.

Jill, John and I went and saw Breaking Dawn. It was pretty horrible, but I laughed alot so it was worth it.

Jill's current house is right by a park with a stream and a great walking trail. We strapped these girls in one day and went for a walk. Just a funny story... One night Paisly my little niece was kind of upset about Daisy being there. Her Dad asked her if she wanted Daisy to go home and she said yes haha. She eventually got over it and I think she liked having a "baby" to play with.

It took us one year to get to a swing. This was Daisy's first time swinging and she had a good ride.

Me.

She got this messy all by herself.

And the fun ended... : )

Our Trip to Arkansas!

So this Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to make a trip out to Arkansas to visit my oldest sister Jill and her family. It was Aaron's idea. One day a few weeks ago he called and was like so do you want to go to Jill's for Thanksgiving and see me too? And I said YES of course! Aaron has been at tech school finishing out his military training and it just happened to be close enough to Arkansas that he could drive in for a few days. I loved this vacation! I loved Arkansas. I loved seeing Jill and her family. I loved seeing Aaron.

I love her little smile.

 This is Jill and John after we went shopping for Thanksgiving. Just a side note my brother in law John makes the best turkey. He fries one and this year he smoked one too. Both were pretty awesome. Jill also is a great cook and made a very tasty dinner with a white chocolate pumpkin cheesecake that was sooo good.

I miss my sister. Its strange that she lives so far away now. I am so glad that I got to go see her new home and her life here. Plus I loved seeing her kids. Before I was married they were my little buddies. Its fun to see how they have grown into kids.

 I am not going to lie that the highlight of our trip was Aaron. We have been missing our dad and I have been missing my best friend. It was the best to spend even a few days with him! ( I don't really know what Daisy is doing with her face, but she sure was happy to be with her dad ).

Us.

I loved all the trees that surrounded everything in Conway. I miss living in trees, they make life cozier. Anyway this is Daisy experiencing nature : )

She wouldn't put her feet on the ground. So cute!

She loved playing with her Dad. She loved this.

The other nice thing about going to Arkansas was that Aaron got to celebrate Daisy's first birthday (two days early, but whose counting ) This is right before cake.

I wonder what she was thinking?

I know what she was thinking here... YUM!

Quinn haha...

CAKE!!!!

When I have more time I want to put up more pictures. I had such a good time visiting Jill and her family. I also thought Arkansas wouldn't be that bad of a place to live. More than once Jill drove me around her favorite neighborhoods. The homes were beautiful. Living here in the desert I forget every home around the world isn't covered in stucco.  All of them were movie homes, with brick and wrap around porches, big colonials. Plus each street was lined with big trees and grass. I would move there if I could live in one of those homes, but don't get your hopes up Jill : ) I can't wait until we get to out there again. I miss Jill and her family. It was a much needed vacation to see my family. And thanks Jill for having us and taking me to the dollar jewelery store.



Projects...

Well I have done more to my house these past few weeks than I have since I lived here. And now I am all crafted out! Anyway here are some of the things I have done while Aaron has been gone. You might notice that apparently I like painting everything my favorite shade of white right now : )

 

This was how my kitchen looked a year ago. I am still kind of amazed at my carpentry skills that produced these cabinets.

Don't they look better white! And the blue back splash is actually raised wallpaper. It looks really good, but the picture doesn't show the details. My kitchen is always a work in progress... my whole house is. I want to replace the window curtain with roman shades, do something different under the sink, but like I said I am all crafted out. 

I don't have a before picture for the bed. The wall used to be brown, the bed spread green, no headboard, and the night stands were wood with a Navajo flair. This a work in progress too. I think the wall needs to be different, its too bare. I also have some picture frames that will go above the bed with that YOU&ME I saw on pinterest. The bed needs more pillows and maybe a throw blanket. And the lamps need new shades. I got the bed spread at HomeGoods, its a little girly and different colors than I usually like, but I liked this one. I got the headboard for free it just needed a coat of paint and some crafty love. My mom found the night stands at St. Vincent's a few years ago and made a gift of them to me. I finally redid them and they turned out way good. Thanks Mom for thinking of my newly wed furnitureless house. I also got bed raisers from Walmart and I love having the bed farther from the ground, its like it fills up the space better.

This chest of draws was a 20 dollar Goodwill find. Lately Goodwill has been way over priced, just saying. Anyway I had this out in our front room until my Mom's piano needed a home there. So this got moved to our bedroom.

And now its yellow! I really like the way this turned out. I don't normally branch out from the colors I am used to decorating with, but the bed spread I got had a fun yellow in it so I decided to paint the dresser to match. It added a fun pop of color to our bedroom.

I like doing stuff to my house and making mine. Sometimes I get caught up in looking at all the beautiful homes and rooms in those homes that creative women decorate so beautifully, and trying to copy them. But when it comes down to it I like what I have and feel blessed to have what I have. Even if sometimes I wish that my house looked exactly like every room in Country Living Magazine. Maybe someday it will... but until that day I will keep painting and trying to make my house a home in more ways than just decorating it.

Halloween!

I have to be honest, I was not very enthused about Halloween this year. Most years I can at least summon up the spirit to carve a pumpkin, but not this year. I didn't even want to make Daisy a costume, but I knew if I didn't I would regret it. I saw some cute costume ideas on pinterest, my new favorite thing. I was going to make her a little witch, but I never found a hat. I also wanted to avoid the inevitable costume of being a Daisy. But as the day drew closer my sister convinced me to just make her a Daisy and I am so glad I did. She was a perfect Daisy and the costume was extremely easy to make and cheap, the best kind of costume. I was also bummed that Aaron wasn't here to see in person how cute she was. This was the first Halloween in the past three years Aaron and I weren't together. Our fist Halloween was the night my volleyball team lost in the region tournament my freshman year. After the last game Aaron took me to a tiny little pizza place near GCC. I remember having so much fun that night. I popped a bag of ice I had for my knee on Aaron's lap. He didn't think I would do it, but I did. I guess I was testing him to see if he would stick with the girl who poured freezing water on his lap : ) He did and even bought me pizza. That was the first night he mentioned wanting to do something in the military. Little did I know. The next Halloween we had been married for a few months. I made pork chops that night. I also asked Aaron to come look at the pumpkin I had carved. But while looking at the pumpkin, we locked ourselves out without phones or spare keys. So there we were locked outside with all the trick or treaters, while my pork chops cooked on the stove. Luckily one window was unlocked and we got back inside before the house caught on fire. We finished the night with My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Last Halloween I was very pregnant. We watched all the Halloween town movies per Aaron's request. It was a fun night we handed out candy and then when the trick or treaters stopped coming, we went for a walk in an attempt to kick start labor. This year was fun to have Daisy to dress up, but we missed our Dad. I loved Daisy's costume, but I have to say my favorite was one of a little boy who was dressed like Russel from UP! He was in his wilderness attire with balloons. Definitely made me smile.

October Ramblings...

This past month went by way fast, which I prefer because that means we are one month closer to having Aaron home. The days go by slow but the weeks fly by, as my Mom put it. The begining of the month began with my 22nd birthday. It was a good day. I got a pedicure (thanks Rena!) and to do a little birthday shopping. I bought boots. I have always wanted a pair to wear with skirts and jeans. I like being twenty-two because now I am not twenty-one. This month has been better than the past few months because I get to talk with Aaron everyday. He is no longer at boot camp so he has actual free time to call every evening. It has been such a relief to be able to talk to my husband even if there is nothing new to report. I also get to send videos and pictures of Daisy talking, crawling, climbing and whatever else she is up too. Aaron will be home the week of Christmas. We are getting closer! Yay! My sister Heidi also had her newest little girl Piper Jane this month. I love holding a newborn. It is weird to think that Daisy was that small less than a year ago, now she tries to stick her fingers up my nose : ) Daisy is eleven months old. She is longer, faster, stronger and smarter. And her two top teeth popped through this past week. I am glad to get rid of the vampire smile even if it was the cutest thing ever. She is losing her baby feel more and more. It makes me sad, but I love how much she is growing. I just got back from Pinetop this past Sunday. I am glad that I made it up there this past month. October up there is real fall, where leaves change and you wear sweaters because you have to, not just because you want to.

She discovered my wallet...

Little Piper : )

Due to my little girl being a master arny crawler she wore a hole in her pj's.

Don't we look good in the morning?